"CR7" redirects here.

For other uses, see Cristiano Ronaldo

(disambiguation) and CR7 (disambiguation).
In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is dos Santos and the
second or paternal family name is Aveiro.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo with Al Nassr in 2023

Personal information

Full name Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro[1]

Date of birth 5 February 1985 (age 39)[2]

Place of birth Funchal, Madeira, Portugal[2]

Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)[2][note 1]

Position(s) Forward

Team information

Current team Al Nassr

Number 7

Youth career

1992–1995 Andorinha

1995–1997 Nacional

1997–2002 Sporting CP

Senior career*

Years Team Apps (Gls)

2002–2003 Sporting CP B 2 (0)

2002–2003 Sporting CP 25 (3)

 2003–2009 Manchester United 196 (84)

2009–2018 Real Madrid 292 (311)

2018–2021 Juventus 98 (81)

2021–2022 Manchester United 40 (19)

2023– Al Nassr 47 (49)

International career‡

2001 Portugal U15 9 (7)

2001–2002 Portugal U17 7 (5)

2003 Portugal U20 5 (1)

2002–2003 Portugal U21 10 (3)

2004 Portugal U23 3 (2)

2003– Portugal 212 (130)

show

Medal record

Signature

*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as

of 22:05, 27 May 2024 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23:45, 5
July 2024 (UTC)

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro GOIH ComM (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɾiʃ
ˈtjɐnu ʁɔˈnaldu]; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who
plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr and
the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all
time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards,[note 3] a record three UEFA Men's
Player of the Year Awards, and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a
European player. He has won 33 trophies in his career, including seven league titles,
five UEFA Champions Leagues, the UEFA European Championship and the UEFA
Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for most appearances (183), goals (140)
and assists (42) in the Champions League, most appearances (30), assists (8), goals
in the European Championship (14), international goals (130) and international
appearances (212). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,200
professional career appearances, the most by an outfield player, and has scored
over 890 official senior career goals for club and country, making him the top
goalscorer of all time.

Ronaldo began his senior career with Sporting CP, before signing with Manchester
United in 2003, winning the FA Cup in his first season. He would also go on to win
three consecutive Premier League titles, the Champions League and the FIFA Club
World Cup; at age 23, he won his first Ballon d'Or. Ronaldo was the subject of the
then-most expensive association football transfer when he signed for Real Madrid in
2009 in a transfer worth €94 million (£80 million). He became a key contributor and
formed an attacking trio with Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale which was integral to
the team winning four Champions Leagues from 2014 to 2018, including La Décima.
During this period, he won back-to-back Ballons d'Or in 2013 and 2014, and again
in 2016 and 2017, and was runner-up three times behind Lionel Messi, his
perceived career rival. He also became the club's all-time top goalscorer and the all-
time top scorer in the Champions League, and finished as the competition's top
scorer for six consecutive seasons between 2012 and 2018. With Real, Ronaldo won
four Champions Leagues, two La Liga titles, two Copas del Rey, two UEFA Super
Cups and three Club World Cups. In 2018, he signed for Juventus in a transfer worth
an initial €100 million (£88 million), the most expensive transfer for an Italian club and
for a player over 30 years old. He won two Serie A titles, two Supercoppa
Italiana trophies and a Coppa Italia, became the inaugural Serie A Most Valuable
Player and became the first footballer to finish as top scorer in the English, Spanish
and Italian leagues. He returned to Manchester United in 2021, finishing his only full
season as the club's top scorer, before his contract was terminated in 2022. In 2023,
he signed for Al Nassr.

Ronaldo made his international debut for Portugal in 2003 at the age of 18 and has
earned more than 200 caps, making him history's most-capped male player.[10] With
130 international goals, he is also the all-time top male goalscorer. Ronaldo has
played in and scored at eleven major tournaments; he scored his first international
goal at Euro 2004, where he helped Portugal reach the final. He
assumed captaincy of the national team in July 2008. In 2015, Ronaldo was named
the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation. The
following year, he led Portugal to their first major tournament title at Euro 2016, and
received the Silver Boot as the second-highest goalscorer of the tournament. This
achievement would see him receive his fourth Ballon d'Or. He also led them to victory
in the inaugural UEFA Nations League in 2019, receiving the top scorer award in the
finals, and later received the Golden Boot as top scorer of Euro 2020.

One of the world's most marketable and famous athletes, Ronaldo was ranked
the world's highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2016, 2017, and 2023, and the world's
most famous athlete by ESPN from 2016 to 2019. Time included him on their list of
the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. He is the first footballer and the
third sportsman to earn US$1 billion in his career.

Early life
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on 5 February 1985 in the São
Pedro parish of Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira, and grew
up in the nearby parish of Santo António.[11][12] He is the fourth and youngest child of
Maria Dolores dos Santos Viveiros da Aveiro, who worked as a cook in the hospitality
industry and a cleaning woman,[13][14] and José Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardener at
the Junta de Freguesia of Santo António and part-time kit man for football
club Andorinha.[15][16][17] His great-grandmother on his father's side, Isabel da Piedade,
an African woman, was born in the island of São Vicente, in what was
then Portuguese Cape Verde, and moved to Madeira Island at 16.[18][19] He has one
older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia "Katia".[20] He was
named after actor and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, whom his father was a fan of.
[21]
His mother revealed that she wanted to abort him due to poverty, his
father's alcoholism, and having too many children already, but her doctor refused to
perform the procedure.[22][23] Ronaldo grew up in an impoverished Roman
Catholic home, sharing a room with all his siblings.[24]

As a child, Ronaldo played for Andorinha from 1992 to 1995,[25] where his father was
the kit man,[15] and later spent two years with Nacional. In 1997, aged 12, he went on
a three-day trial with Sporting CP, who signed him for a fee of £1,500.[26] He
subsequently moved from Madeira to Lisbon to join Sporting CP's youth system.[26] By
age 14, while struggling with his school duties and responsibilities in Escola EB2 de
Telheiras, his school in the Telheiras area of Lisbon, Ronaldo believed he had the
ability to play semi-professionally and agreed with his mother and his tutor at
Sporting CP, Leonel Pontes,[27] to cease his education to focus entirely on football.[28]
[29]
With a troubled life as a student[30] and although living in Lisbon area away from his
Madeiran family,[31][32] he did not complete schooling beyond the 6th grade.[33][34] While
popular with other students at school, he had been expelled after throwing a chair at
his teacher, who he said had "disrespected" him.[28] One year later, he was diagnosed
with tachycardia, a condition that could have forced him to give up playing football.
[35]
Ronaldo underwent heart surgery where a laser was used
to cauterise multiple cardiac pathways into one, altering his resting heart rate.[36] He
was discharged from the hospital hours after the procedure and resumed training a
few days later.[37] In 2021, Cristiano Ronaldo's mother, Dolores Aveiro, stated in an
interview for Sporting CP's official television channel (Sporting TV) that her son would
be a bricklayer if he hadn't become a professional football player.[38]

Growing up, Ronaldo idolised the Brazilian footballers Ronaldinho and Ronaldo
Nazário, and has described them as leaving "a beautiful history in football".[39]

Career
Main article: Career of Cristiano Ronaldo
 This article is part of a series about
Cristiano Ronaldo

Portuguese professional footballer

 Career
 International goals
 Achievements
 Rivalry with Lionel Messi

Eponyms and public art

 Estádio da Madeira
 Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport
 Museu CR7

Films

 The World at His Feet (2014)

 Ronaldo (2015)

Family

 Kátia Aveiro
 Georgina Rodríguez

Related

 Galaxy CR7
 v
 t
 e

Club career
Sporting CP
Ronaldo made Sporting CP's first team at age 16. He made his senior debut in
August 2002 in a Champions League qualifying match against Inter Milan,[40] and
scored his first senior goals one month later.[41]

Manchester United
After attracting interest from major clubs, including Arsenal,[42] Manchester
United's Alex Ferguson signed Ronaldo for £12 million on 12 August 2003,[43] an
England record for a teenager.[44] He scored his first United goal in November 2003
and won the FA Cup in his first season. On 29 October 2004, Ronaldo scored
United's 1,000th Premier League goal in a 4–1 loss to Middlesbrough.[45] Ronaldo won
the 2005–06 Football League Cup after scoring in United's 4–0 final win over Wigan
Athletic.[46] By 2006–07, he was a key player, helping United win the Premier League
and earning Premier League Player of the Month awards in November and
December 2006.[47] 2007–08 saw Ronaldo score 42 goals, his most in a season
during his time with United, leading the club to Premier League and Champions
League titles. He won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year in 2008. In
2008–09, he helped United to a third consecutive league title and a Champions
League final again, scoring 26 goals.[48] His last goal for United was a free kick in
the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford on 10 May 2009.[49]

Real Madrid
In 2009, Ronaldo transferred to Real Madrid for a then world record £80 million.
[50]
Despite scoring 33 goals in all competitions and contributing to Real Madrid's 96
points in La Liga, his first season with Madrid ended trophyless.[51] Following Raúl's
departure, Ronaldo was given No. 7 for the 2010–11 season and scored 53 goals,
helping Madrid win the Copa del Rey, his first trophy with Madrid.[52] The 2011–12
season saw Ronaldo score 60 goals across all competitions,[53] leading Madrid to their
first league title in four years and his runner-up finish to Lionel Messi in the 2011
FIFA Ballon d'Or.[54] He continued prolific scoring, with 69 goals in 2013, winning
the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or,[55] the European Golden Shoe along with Liverpool's Luis
Suárez,[56] and helping Madrid win the Champions League in 2013–14 with a record
17 goals in the competition.[57] On 4 May 2014, Ronaldo scored a back-heeled volley
in the closing moments of the match against Valencia, voted goal of the season by
the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (LFP),[58] giving him the Best Player in La
Liga award.[59] Ronaldo won his second consecutive Ballon d'Or in 2014 after winning
the Club World Cup.[60]

Cristiano Ronaldo became Real Madrid's all-time top goalscorer on 12 September

2015 against Espanyol, netting 230 goals in 203 matches, surpassing the previous
record holder, Raúl.[61] He reached 500 career goals for club and country after scoring
both goals against Malmö FF in a 2–0 away win on 30 September 2015 in the
Champions League.[62] Ronaldo became the first player to net 100 goals in UEFA club
competition, as he scored two goals in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions
League quarter-finals against Bayern Munich in the away leg.[63] Ronaldo scored a
goal in a 2–0 win over Malaga on 21 May 2017 to secure Madrid's first La Liga title in
five years.[64] He